Clarke pulls out of speech on tobacco

Kenneth Clarke has abruptly cancelled a visit to the European Parliament to speak on behalf of British American Tobacco, the cigarette giant where he works part-time as deputy chairman.

The visit to the parliament in Strasbourg next week, to address MEPs and business executives, would have made an ideal opportunity to lobby Conservative MEPs, who play a key role in setting the voting rules for leadership contests.

However, Eurosceptic MEPs said yesterday they believed that Mr Clarke had decided that the combination of Europe and tobacco was too politically "toxic" to risk.

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Mr Clarke, who is paid £150,000 a year for his work at BAT, plus £21,000 of benefits in kind, was due to address the annual Strasbourg visit of the British Chamber of Commerce.

He was to speak on behalf of BAT on the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility, during what the event organisers promised would be a "contentious debate" on "whether business should be regulated, or left to take the initiative [to regulate itself]."

The speaking engagement was to take place in rooms at the parliament, booked for the chamber by MEPs.

The session was to be "led" by BAT, according to materials sent to chamber members, but officials said the tobacco firm was not providing financial sponsorship.

The visit was eagerly anticipated, with executives keen to hear Mr Clarke defend the tobacco industry's long-standing preference for self-regulation over legal regulation.

Mr Clarke, 65, heads BAT's corporate social responsibility committee.

A current focus of the committee is co-ordinating efforts by the company, which holds 15 per cent of the world cigarette market, to reduce the amount of child labour in tobacco farming.